


Hide What You Want Hidden

by pearl_o



Category: X-Men: First Class (2011) - Fandom
Genre: Hotels, M/M, Morning After, Sleep
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-01-07
Updated: 2012-01-07
Packaged: 2017-10-29 02:30:43
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 462
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/314852
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/pearl_o/pseuds/pearl_o
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Charles wakes up, the morning after he and Erik first sleep together.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Hide What You Want Hidden

**Author's Note:**

  * For [pocky_slash](https://archiveofourown.org/users/pocky_slash/gifts).



> Written as commentfic for the prompt _coffee, sunlight, hesitation_.

The motel room is dark when Charles awakes, and Erik is still asleep beside him. The hour's getting late; usually by this time, they've checked out and started on the road again. The sunlight is fighting to find a way in through the dark blinds covering every window, but so far it's made little progress, the occasional tiny beam finding slight headway at some odd angle. In the time it takes Charles to extract himself from the bed, shower and dress, Erik has still not awoken.

It surprises him. He wonders if - no, he knows. Erik's sleep is deep and peaceful. Even if he didn't know so much of Erik's mind, they have been together enough days on the road for him to have witnessed what Erik's sleep is generally like, and it has never looked like this. Erik sleeps short, tense, efficient: the same way he seems to do most things.

Charles wonders what he's dreaming about. He wants very badly to look, very badly indeed, but he knows better than to do so. And he does have self-control, after all, plenty of it. Though one mightn't know it, seeing him around Erik, he reflects.

Last night was probably a mistake. The softness in Erik's face right now makes something ache, deep inside Charles's chest. Erik won't thank him for it, for the complications they've added, for how Charles has pushed himself even further into Erik's head. He's seen - felt, so much - the hesitation Erik still feels, even after their weeks on the road, working together, even as they grow closer. One needn't be a telepath to understand that; Erik radiates his intensity, his focus, his mission at all times. Charles supposes he is more a distraction than anything else.

Still... last night it wasn't Charles who made the first move. It wasn't Charles who started it. Erik tasted like desperation, need, like hunger, and Charles felt like _he_ was the one drowning, then, there in his arms, waiting for Erik to pull him up above the surface so he could breathe once more.

Frankly, Charles can't find it in himself to regret any of it.

Nonetheless, he suspects it would be a kindness to not be in the room when Erik does awake. He'll want time to himself, putting himself back together, without Charles there. He wouldn't appreciate knowing that Charles has seen him even this unguarded.

There's a diner not far down the street. Charles will go, buy himself a cup of coffee, nurse it while he reads the paper and does the crossword. When Erik is up and ready, Charles will be able to sense his mind and send him a message, then.

He'll wait, and Erik will come to him when he's ready, on his own terms.


End file.
